Probably the worst games ever

Norwegians are weird. For instance, we love standing out in the woods for hours in the freezing cold, just to watch our athletes rush past us within the blink of an eye. These Lacrosse boots are part of my "waiting-for-hours-in-the-woods" attire. Purchased for the World Rally Championship in Norway a couple of years ago, I think. Paired with layers and layers of wool and fleece, topped with ski pants and a down jacket, I am prepared for anything in these. Except, maybe, actually MOVING AROUND. Posing as the Michelin Woman is somewhat overrated.

Getting up at eight in the morning on a Saturday to catch the subway into the woods is not what I normally do. Saturday was a very rare exception. My home town is currently trying to host the World Championship in (Nordic) Skiing. We are OF COURSE winning lots of medals, which is cool, but really no big surprise. Norwegians are BORN with skis on. And, of course, we let only our very best skiers participate. But, why then, is it, that we let some of the most useless people around host the event on our behalf? These are the people that:

• Are unaware of the fact that Saturdays tend to fall on weekends
• Do not know how many people to expect. A hint: How many tickets did you sell? Duh!
• Do not expect people to show up so EARLY. If people had arrived LATER, they would surely have made it to the skiing arena on time, yeah? Double-duh.

The consequence of the above "minor hick-up" was that thousands of spectators with 100 USD tickets to this Saturday's skiing events were stuck waiting for the subway. OR - like us - were tricked into taking a bus that dropped us off in the middle of the woods with little or no information about how to get to the skiing arena. If you were lucky enough to meet one of the so-called "hosts" of the event (who were quite far and between) you very soon regretted asking for directions. Then you had the pleasure of being shouted at, spoken down to, or - at its best - simply ignored. I know that it is not easy getting people to volunteer working at sports events like these. So, of course, you might not get hold of the most qualified people. But most people do at least have the ability to SMILE, don´t they?

This sign MIGHT indicate that this is a bus stop. 

It may also just be a nice picture of a bus. 

Who knows?

I am not sure if this was to make up for the grumpiness of the "hosts", but as part of the so-called "culture program" presented along "The Path of Winter joy" we were entertained (?) by around fifty overly annoying people singing and laughing and throwing snow at each other. They were - of course - dressed as TROLLS. How original. How very Norwegian. 

Did the stupid trolls manage to put us in a better mood? Definitely not. For that we have Jägermeister. An important ingredient in any successful outdoor sports event. Along with the mandatory hot dogs in a thermo flask.

To me personally this chaos was not really such a big deal. Ok, I wasted a Saturday wading around for hours in uncomfortable shoes/far too much clothing and I missed the victory of our skiing queen. Which I would most probably not have been able to see anyway because of the thick fog. But the lines were also full of people that had travelled from far away to be here for this event. And they missed it due to some useless nitwits that have landed jobs way above their capacity. Totally embarrassing.

Sad to say, very often NO management is better than BAD management. I cried with laughter when the head of our local transportation company, "Ruter", was interviewed on the news today, working as a guard at our local subway station. Showing that he is indeed "a man of action" and as a result he is able to "pull up his sleeves" and contribute when needed. Sorry. It is a bit late for that now. Let´s just hope we get though the next weeks without any further embarrassments. Then he can get a permanent position as a subway guard. That might just be the perfect job for him. More within his reach, so to say.